


Reoccuring Nightmares

by bryar6



Category: Renegades - Marissa Meyer
Genre: Angst, Backstory, Fluff, Gen, Guns, Nightmares, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:34:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26409592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bryar6/pseuds/bryar6
Summary: Young Nova and Adrian had their own fears and nightmares long before they met. They had their share of trials and tribulations, and a couple of happier backstory-esque things here and there. Each of the shorts occurred prior to the events of Renegades. Most of these were written a while ago, so there's likely to be errors here and there.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Reoccuring Nightmares

*** Six years ago ***

It plays, over and over in her mind. Nova was so little when it happened. When her uncle came to the rescue rather than the glorious Captain Chromium. When she lost almost all of her family. But Ace took her in, showed her his family, his Anarchists. Slowly, she trusted them, carried out small missions that grew ever larger. The years went on, and Nova came to think of it like her new life. She abandoned the old things that held her down, used her spare time to create beautiful things, powerful, intricate things. She belonged, after feeling so rejected from the society that didn’t save her family. 

Nova shakes her head, dispelling the thoughts. They’re bitterly pleasant, but she still has years to wait before she can really complete her biggest mission yet. After putting the final piece into a newly outfitted gun, she stands and heads through the tunnels to go find her uncle. 

The tunnels are dark and unfriendly, the bane of Nova’s ever-nocturnal existence. There’s no stars to watch up in Gatlon City anyways, not for all the pollution it suffers. But maybe one day there could be. She wishes, knowing full well they never come true.

Ace nods, pondering Nova’s request.   
“An alias, you say?”  
“Well, I was thinking, and if I’m an Anarchist now, don’t I get a name too? Like Cyanide, and Queen Bee, and Phobia- wait, what _is_ Phobia’s name?”   
“I suppose you do, don’t you? You need a name.”   
“Yeah, I was thinking….” She trails off, suddenly shy and embarrassed. It’s dumb, she thinks.   
“What? Tell me, Nova.”   
“I was thinking… Nightmare.”   
“Oh, I like that.” Ace smiles. “My little Nightmare. Yes, I can see that.”

*** Six Years Ago ***

Adrian tosses and turns in his bed, seeing nothing but the Monster behind his curtains and desk, hovering over the pile of toys in the corner. The Monster that shoved his mother from that rooftop on that fateful day. Adrian shivers with the thoughts that happen to him every single time he tries to sleep. 

So instead of sleeping, Adrian pulls out a marker and does the only thing he knows. Draws. They’re scary, dark things that hover and stare at him from the paper. The Monster wants to get rid of him, too. It bares its teeth, it’s eyes burning into him, it’s darkness consuming. He’s careful not to put so much effort or to think the drawing alive, else it try to shove him of the roof too. 

Adrian’s marker stops. His shoulders tremble. Tears drip onto his art and they smudge the sketchy lines into a blur of black-blue color. His mom. He sobs silently, the piece of art soon becoming just a smudge of black. He’s frustrated that he can’t sleep, frustrated he couldn’t save his mom, couldn’t do anything to fix the world while his dads tried to rebuild it. 

“Adrian?” He doesn’t even notice the door opening to his basement room. Far from the high up windows, somewhere the Monster couldn’t push him to his death. “Are you still up?” Simon’s form leans in, casting a shadow on the wall. Adrian jumps away from the desk, quickly shutting off the light and crumpling the tear-soaked art.

“No,” he says, his tears making his voice break. 

“Hey little guy, what’s up?” It’s Hugh this time. 

“Just can’t sleep. I’m going to bed now.” Adrian does his best to subtly slip into bed, dragging the covers up to his chin. 

“You sure? Don’t need a story, or a snack, or a movie maybe?” 

“I’m fine, thanks. Goodnight.” But he won’t voice how much he doesn’t want to be left alone. He takes off his glasses, rubbing the tear smudges off of them, sniffling. His dads mumble things to themselves that Adrian can’t hear. 

“Well, we’re lonely too, so we’ll join you tonight,” Hugh says, snatching up a blanket at the foot of Adrian’s bed and spreading it on the floor. Less reluctantly than he thought he would be, Adrian slides to the floor, taking his sheets and pillow with him. He smiles, laughs a little, rubbing his face with his sleeve.

The warmth of his dads on either side of him, feeling comforted and wanted, it almost seems as though the Monster never existed, and that he could just pretend it was him and his mother in their apartment, thinking about all the little gifts he would draw her tomorrow. 

Adrian slips back into peaceful sleep, imagining what gifts his dads would like. 

*** Five Years Ago ***

Nova seethes. She kicks the concrete walls of the old subway tunnel, suppressing a yell.

“You’ll get it, just find some freaking patience, would you?” Ingrid is anything but kind to Nova when she trains. It’s the tenth time Nova has missed an easy target. A target that anyone with a gun could hit. 

“I’m not good enough. I’m not accurate enough, not close enough. I’ll never be able to kill anyone like this. I couldn’t hit the ocean if I was swimming in it.” Nova’s breaths come hard. _Calm down. Calm down. It’s okay. Be patient._ She imagines Ace is the voice of reason in her head.

“Are you forcing our little girl to keep training? She’s twelve, great skies, you’re ragging on a child to get better at shooting a gun.” Honey tsks to herself. “Come her sweetie, I won’t let Miss Tuff Stuff bother you more today.”

Nova shoves the gun back into Ingrid’s arms, and stalks off behind Honey’s disappearing trail of bees. _I won’t ever get any better if I keep missing like that, and acting so mad every time. I won’t ever be able to avenge Mom, or Dad, or, or... Evie._ She scrubs at her eyes and tries to put it out of her mind. 

“You poor girl, Ingrid just never leaves you alone, does she?” Honey’s bees bump up against Nova in what was supposed to seem like an endearing gesture, but comes off as somewhat concerning. “Well, I’ll fix you right up with something sweet, and then go get some rest, would you? It’s like you never rest-” Honey stops, looks back over her shoulder. 

Nova turns away, the anger building up again. She closes her eyes, sees her parent’s bodies on the ground before her, hears her baby sister stop crying, sees the sleeping man’s face with the gun pointing at him. Pull the trigger, Nova. She hears the gunshots…. 

“Oh, Nova, I’m so sorry, I didn’t think, I just, I forgot- oh please come back hun! Nova dear!” 

She’s off, feet pounding against the hard concrete of the tunnels, the rage and fear and sadness all building up. In the moment, she feels much older than her age. 

“Ingrid!” She pants. “Where are you?” The Detonator’s laugh echoes down to her.

“Right here. Ready to try again?”

“Yes.” Nova doesn’t make eye contact with her as she takes the gun and loads it.

She aims. She remembers to relax, to focus. It’s just her and the target now. She breathes gently, and looks. The looming face of Captain Chromium stares at her from the other end of the tunnel. _You didn’t save her._

_This is for Evie._

She fires once. Ingrid whistles. 

Her mark is true. 

*** Five Years Ago ***

Adrian watches the TV screen intensely. There’s news of the city’s criminals stealing from a hospital, again. And a murder. A burning building. And so much more. He frowns deeply, wondering why his fathers have done nothing about it. But he won’t ask. He knows better than to worry them more. Their hands are full with a city they’re trying to rebuild.

He has better things to do today, he thinks, switching off the TV. Grabbing a couple markers and a coat, he’s out the door and on his way to HQ, a smile on his face. It’s his best friend’s birthday, after all.

“Max!” Adrian shouts, before he’s all the way up the stairs to the skywalk. “Guess what day today is!” He’s panting when he pounds on the wall to the quarantine. 

An unsuspecting young boy is sitting in the middle of an elaborate glass city, behind a thick glass wall, his unruly hair sticking up. “It’s too early for this,” he complains. The TV in the background pictures a collapsing building. Max notices, sighing. “Guess I gotta get rid of that one, too.”

“It’s your birthday! Guess what I brought!” They’re not even questions- afterall, Adrian has nothing but his markers. “Guess!”

Max rubs his eyes, looks through his glass floor and to the entrance hall below him. “Umm...A cake? I’d like a cake. Or a remote control car. Or...hmm...a cape.”

Adrian wonders if he could draw an edible cake. He knows the things he makes become real, but food seems to take it a little far. “I can make you a cake. Or a car. Or anything. Buttttttt....since today is your day, I was thinking maybe having a little party of our own. I’ll make you whatever you want.”

“So…” Max gestures to the glass pane between them. Adrian rolls his eyes.

“Yeah yeah yeah. I’ll start with the cape. Then the car.” Adrian gets to work, thinking of a long flowing cloth, smooth and silky, with a big R on the back for Renegades. Max has always wanted to be a hero- he always has been, to the world -but not in a conventional sense. “There.” Adrian wills the cape into existence, and it appears on the other side of the glass, a murky-clear glass looking material, with a red R in the center. It seems to shimmer. 

Max grins and pulls it around his shoulders. He pauses. “Well, I think it’s wonderful. Even if you can’t make a cake. Thank you.” Max’s hair passes into his eyes and he blows it out of the way. 

“Of course. You’re pretty much my brother, so I’d do anything for you. You know that.” Adrian is slightly taken aback by his words, and pushes his glasses up in his awkwardness. “So, the car?”

Rubbing the cape between his fingers, Max nods. “Yeah. Thanks.” Max picks up a building in his hands and removes it from the street, setting it aside in case they decide to rebuild it looking just like the previous one. It’s unlikely, but he doesn’t want to cause Adrian more work. And as much fun as it is to smash the glass buildings, it creates a dangerous mess. Max’s brow furrows. Dangerous is one word he could use on himself. 

Adrian is already drawing balloons and streamers, clear as glass and dotted with red from the second marker, and they’re laughing and joking together, sunlight streaming into the building and sending the glass city sparkling.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoyed! Feel free to check out what else I have posted and keep an eye out for future uploads!


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